Getting to know the Dutch society, H1 + H2

Samenvatting Maatschappijleer:

Chapter 1: what are social studies?

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When you live in a family, there must be rules to be able to live together. The same goes for living in a society. You have to apprectiate these rules.

The rules that apply in the society as a whole are:

the view of persons with the most power.

The influence of those in an inferior position

the means of power available to either group

Social problems start with personal problems. If more people start to have these problems it will be a social problem. In the Netherlands the most important rules are laid down in a democratic process. We can vote in the elections and influence how social problems are solved.

Something is said to be a social problem if:

has consequences for a larger group (if social problems affect people in the society, bijv. file)

Is caused by social developments (developments have unseen problems, more cars due succes)

involves conflicting interests. (social problems can affect some people, bijv meer file als je in de randstad woont dan in Zeeland.)

Has to be solved jointly. (in the Netherlands politcians must weight the advantages and disadvantages of a certain decision. Therefore the social problems can become a political problem.

Rule of Law: is about how personal freedom and the protection of legal interests of citizens are guaranteed. (The authority is not allowed to arrest citizens for no reason.)

Parliamentary Democracy: is about the way decisions are made in the Netherlands, how politicians operate and how citizens influence this decision.)

Pluralist Democracy: focuses on how people with different beliefs and backgrounds find a way of living together.

Welfare State: how people look after themselves and eachother. Is every unemployed person entitled to security benefits or only those who cannot work?

Interests: The advantage or disadvantage someone gets from something. An interest often involves a financial advantage or disadvantage.

Power: power is the ability to influence the behaviour of others. The person who has the power is called the authority. Power is exercised through sources of power, such as money, position, job, knowledge, prestige etc.

Social Cohesion: when people in a country feel they belong together. Some people don't feel like they belong together. The standards values and interests that apply, depend on:

Place; In some countries they have a caste system, the people don't experience this as inequality.

Time; nowadays people don't feel like having many children, this used to be different.

Group; Youngsters on the radical right are against the multicultural society, as more internationally-orientated people see it as an enrichment for the Netherlands.

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A lot of information reaches us through the media. Six theories on this subject will be discussed below.

Hypodermic needle theory: - manipulated: receiving information, but only parts of it. (so not all)

- propagenda: information is intentially given in oreder to influence people. (mostly by advertising, during the elections)

- indoctrination: the prolonged, systematic and authorative imposition on people of certain ideas and views in order to influence their way of thinking.

Multiple-step-flow theory: the mass media influences the public through opinion leaders. Vopinion leaders are people who have a great deal of informal authority within a certain circle. (family, school, work..) The opinion leaders have developed a clear opinion about a subject, others quickly adopt it.

Cultivation theory: television plays a dominant role in transferring culture. In particular fiction programmes , such as soaps. People who frequently watch them may start to believe these stories are true. (for example shooting games, children might start to confuse the violence in a game with the normal world.)

Selective perception: We will tend to perceive things according to how we usually think we react to something, and we will react react in that way we think. For example if you are a lover of violent movies, you like watching kick-boxing. If you are a peace supporter, you will not like it at all.

Agenda theory: The media does not determine how people think, but at most, what they think and talk about with eachother. The information supplied by the media gives us something to think about after that we form or opinion.

Framing theory: The media shows a news item from only one perspective. Because of this your way of thinking will be influenced.

Stereotyping: a fixed image is used to attribute certain characteristics to a whole group.

Discrimination: treating people differently on basis of characteristics that are irrelevant in a given situation.

Chapter 2: Rule of Law:

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Constitutional democracy: This type of state offers its citizens a double guarantee. Firstly they have the right to part in free elections, and so they can influence decisions and political issues. (democration)

Secondly, a constitutional state sets rules for both citizens and the government. All members of the parliament must all stay within the law and act in accordance with legal principles. This is the basis of the constitutional state.

Social contract: The law can be regarded as a social contract. As a citizen you have to follow the rules, if you do so, you may be assured that the government follow the rules as well.

Limits and rules: The government makes decisions, they can't make all decisions, there are limits and rules. They have to consider the limits and rules. For example, they cannot impose excessive punishments without the approval of an independent court. Courts define the limits of the power of the government, the majority is not free to do as it pleases, they also have to pay attention to the minorities.

The origin of the constitutional state and Rule of Law: The basic idea came up between the 17th and 18th centuries when Louis XIV (The Sun King) had absolute power, he wanted to rule the state all by himself.

Trias Politica: The French philosopher Charles Louis the Secondat, believed a parliament was needed, to counterbalance the power of the king. This Parliament, elected by the people was to make laws.

Fundamental rights: these ideas led to the American revolution. They thought that if you paid taxes, you had the right to vote. Shortly after the American revolution, in Europe the French revolution started, they wanted freedom, equality and fraternity. The Western Europe revolution put an end to the absolute power of monarch and kings. Nowadays kings in a constitutional monarchy are bound to the Constitution. The rule of law has also brought the constitutional protection of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of association and assembly.

After WW II: After the WWII the concept of the constitutional state revived. The UDHR (Unitversal Declaration of Human Rights) was adopted by the United Nations. In Europe the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) was formed. Both documents have played a key role in the improvement of human rights. We refer to human rights as fundamental rights: rights which are so essential to the freedom, development, welfare and protection of individual people and groups that they have been laid down in the constitution.

The idea behind the constitutional state is very much alive: the constitutional state is governed by rules and regulations. But it is people who have to carry out these rules. This means mistakes are easily made. There people might start to have complaints on the system. This shows that people associate the rule of law or constitutional state with 'fear', 'erode' and 'death'. This shows an absolute limit of the rule of law. The moral standards (normen) of the rule of law form a minimum bond (binding) that citizens and groups share with eachother, making the rule of law.

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Aim of constitution: The constitution can form a binding element in a pluralist society that consists of an ever-increasing number of different cultures, with different moral standards (normen).

The aims of the constitutions are:

To mark the limits of the state's power and thus guarantee the freedom of citizens;

to lay down fundamental rights of citizens

to express the unity of the state and declare that, in spite of all their differences, citizens wish to be one state and to remain one state.

To outline how the most important bodies of the state (e.g. the king, queen, ministers etc.) are organised.

History of the Constitution: Under influence of the French Revolution, the Netherlands acquired the 'Staatsregeling'. This made the Netherlands a centralized state after it had been a federation of states for many centuries. After the Netherlands had become a constitutional monarchy, the first real Constitution was introduced (1814). This had to be changed when the Belgians joined (1840), since then the constitution has undergone many great changes.

A few big changes were :

The statesman, Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, exacted the following constitutional change: “The Minister and not the King will be responsible for acts of government.” This meant that the King lost his political power and from then the country was governed under ministerial responsibility.

Another change was the introduction of direct elections for the Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer), the Provincial Council (Provinciale Staten) and local councils (gemeentenraden). But only men were allowed to vote (If they paid taxes.) Or Censuskiesrecht.

1917; universal suffrage (algemeen kiesrecht) for men was introduced. The state also funded schools, and also schools based on religion or ideology. (not the case in many countries)

1922; woman also received the right to vote.

1983; there was a complete revision of the Constitution, they added to the original fundamental rights, basic social rights were also included.

Set-up of the constitution:

Fundamental Rights (Ch.1): The constitution starts out with the original fundamental rights such as principles of equality and liberty, they are all equally important. If citizens feel that his basic rule is violated, he has the right to go to court.

Basic Social Rights: the basic rules tell that the government has the duty to provide care to citizens in the fields of:

employment and free labour

social security and welfare

quality of life and environment

public health

education

The difference between original fundamental rights and basic social rights is that the government must take measures to guarantee basic social rights. Therefore the citizens cannot go to court to have them enforced.

Other Chapters: Chapters 2 through 7 deal with all the important bodies and governmental tasks:

Monarchy, government, States General, Legislation and government administration of justice, provinces, local council areas and water boards.

Chapter 8: deals with the Amendments (changes) to the Constitution, this is a small but imposrtant section. If a new change has to be made, it first has to be passed by parliament (first and second chamber) twice with a 2/3 majority. Plus debates have to be held in this subject.

Constitution under discussion:
Horizontal operation: Fundamental rights operate at a horizontal level when the relationships between between citizens themselves are involved. (Employer checks email of his employees)

Vertical Operation: Operation between Government and citizens. (the state has to respect the freedoms and rights of the citizens)

Conflicting Fundamental rights: can take place in horizontal level. This happens if the constitutional interests of citizens clash. (e.g. does freedom of speech give a political party the right to express racist views, or should the party be banned?)

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Legal Rules: Legal rules are; are rules of behaviour that a government has laid down in law.

Efficiency: ensuring clear arrangements

Moral awareness: Ensuring there are rules reflecting the moral standards we share in society.

Social and Moral rules:
Social Rules: Are nor written down, they judge on behaviour in terms of behaviour which takes other people into account and behaviour that does not take other people into account.

-Moral rules: Judge behaviour in terms on good and evil. (Not put your shoes on a seat etc)

Conflicting Rules: These sorts of rules may conflict. Then you have to decide which rule is the most important.

Legal Areas:
Private law: deals with all the relationships between individual citizens. Private law involves Horizontal relationships, such as buying a car, entering a marriage, adopting a child. These are all legal relationships by people intending to do business or to work together of their own free will. The private law is also called civil war. The private law is always about rights ans duties. Private law includes the following areas:

Law of person and family law: regulates matters as marriage and divorce

Company law: regulates the conditions under which you can set up a foundation/ association or private company.

Property Law: regulates all the matters involving a persons property.

Public Law: relates to all the relationships between citizens and government.

Constitutional law: Includes the rules how the Netherlands is organised.

Administrative Law: Covers the administrative of the government.(building permits etc.)

Criminal Law: legal penalty provisions.

In other words the Public Law regulates with the vertical relationships between the citizens and the government.

The organisation of law: study courts stencil.

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Legal Protection: Every person in the Netherlands has the right to have legal protection. For example assumption of innocence: a suspect is considered innocent until evidence to the contrary has been produced. Also prisoners are entitled to food, visitors and entertainment, and should not be tortured, or subjected to other humiliating practices.

Procedural Rules:

Dutch Criminal Code (wetboek van strafrecht): before someone is put in prison, there must be some form of trial. The rules of all phases of investigations of and trial for criminal offences, these are all in the Dutch Criminal Code.

Law Of Criminal Procedure (wetboek van strafvordering): All actions by policemen, detectives, public prosecutors and courts are subject to strict rules. All these rules are in the Law Of Criminal Procedure.

Criminal Proceedings:
When somebody had committed a crime there are six steps which are taken between the arrest and when the prison doors close:

1.the arrest

2.Investigation by the police and the detective department under supervision of a public prosecutor (officier van justitie).

3.Prosecution by the Public Prosecution Department.

4.Trial by one or more judges during court session.

5.Possibility of appeal cassation

6.Actual implementation of the sentence imposed.

Arrest:
suspect: someone is a suspect if there is a reasonable assumption that he has committed a criminal offence.
Stop: ask suspect for personal details
Arrest: taking someone to the police station for questioning. But only if there is sufficient reason for suspicion.

Investigation: The police starts investigation by collecting information, such as questioning the suspect and witness. An official report is made of this, which is sent to the Public Proseuter, the Public Prosecutor decides if the case is sent to court.

During Investigation the police are allowed to use means of coercion (dwang). For other things the police needs permission from the examining judge. The following actions may be involved:

Conducting a search of the premises for evidence; weapons etc.

Performing DNA tests

Infiltrating criminal organisations and terrorist groups

Requesting special personal details (bank account numbers, telephone numbers, etc)

Detaining a suspect for a loner period: when a suspect is for 6 hours on a police station, the Assistant Public Prosecutor can give permission to detain him for 3 days more. After this period an examining judge has to give extension, the maximum period of pre-trial (voorlopige hechtenis) is 110 days.

Prosecution: The Public Prostecutor decides if the case is sent to court. There are other ways to solve a case, for example by proposing an out-of-court settlement or transaction. This means there will be no prosecution if the suspect agrees with a fine or community service (up to 180 hours).

Dismiss: If the Public Prosecutor decides not to prosecute any further, if he find the case is not serious enough. A case is settled for a suspect if the Public Prosecutor dismisses the suspect.

Trial: When the public Prosecutor has collected enough evidence against the suspect, he brings the case before the court. The suspect is then prosecuted for the charges specified by the Public Prosecutor. The suspect will get a summon (dagvaarding), it says when the suspect has to come to the court, and what criminal offence he has done at what specific place and time.

Minor cases start at the police court (politie rechter), it has one judge and dealt mostly with the small things like shoplifting, which usually carry no more than a year.

The three-judge section (meervoudige kamer) deals with serious crimes under criminal law, such as fraud and manslaughter. The entire case is carefully studied and witnesses are heard. The Public Prosecutor makes his closing speech, and demands the court makes a certain penalty. The lawyer holds his plea (Pleidooi) in defence of the suspect. Finally the court passes sentence (vonnis).

Appeal: If you don't agree with your sentence, you can go in appeal. Then you go to the Court of Appeal, which retries the trial again, from beginning to end. A suspect goes to the court of appeal in the hope getting a lower sentence. If you still don't agree with your sentence, you can go to the Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) this court just checks whether everything in the trial went following the legal rules.

Enforcement of the sentence that has been imposed: a prison sentence imposed by the court is enforced by the 'executive power'. There are rules that guarantee the care of prisoners. The Criminal Justice Act provides this. Detainees are entitled to support from probation and Aftercare Service when they return to society.

The court procedures make an important contribution to the rule of law, to prevent abuse power.

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Criminal Law provisions: The criminal law contains 3 principles which support the rule of Law.

1.The legality principles illustrates the importance of the rule that people canoot be sentenced for something that was not punishable at the time the offence was committed.

2.A criminal provision must be formulated in clear terms so that everybody knows what is allowed and what isn't.

3.Ne bis in idem: you can't be punished for the same crime twice.

Criminal Code: Most criminal law provisions are included in the criminal code. The first part contains general provision which give answer to questions such as: “When is someone punishable?”. The second part lists all Minor offences, it are less serious criminal offences. The difference between minor offences and crimes is important because crimes carry higher sentences and remain registered in the judicial registration system.

Substantive Criminal Law: by substantive criminal law we mean the content of all criminal provisions. The judge has the power to duffer from the maximum penalty downwards, but cannot impose higher sentences. Besides the Criminal Code there are also separate laws containing criminal provisions.

Fixing a penalty: the task of the court is to judge whether the charge has been proved and whether the offence and the offender are punishable in the specific situation. An act is only a criminal offence when the offender has knowingly committed the act. Sometimes the person is not punished, owing to circumstances. These circumstances involve grounds for not imposing punishment, these can be iether grounds for justification and ground for excuse.

Justification defences: If justification defences are involved the act that's been committed is no longer punishable. An example of this is the legitimate self-defence, which means you were defending yourself or someone else against attack. Another justification defence us necessity (breaking a rule to save someone) A third example is obeying official order to competent authority, when someone with authority tells you to do something, but someone else with authority tells you not to.

Excuse defences: In case of excuse defences the act is punishable but the offender is not guilty. Important excuse defences are:

Severe psychological pressure, the one forcing is punishable, the one being forced isn't

excessive self-defence, when you go beyond the bounds of legitimate defence, but you do it under great emotional stress directly resulting from an attack.

Insanity: When someone suffers from a mental disorder and doesn't know what he is doing.

Absence of all blameworthiness: When you don't know you are doing something wrong.

Types of punishment:
Fine: if you fail paying it, you have to go to prison.

Alternative punishment: has to be educational, so you learn from what you have doe wrong.

Imprisonment: for minor offences maximum a year, called detention.

The court can impose the main punishment and an additional punishment. These punishments usually bear a relation to the offence. Finally the court can take measure. (TBS, paying compensation etc.)

Why we punish:
Revenge and retribution: crime should not be allowed to pay.

Deterrence: preventing others to commit a crime.

To prevent people from taking over the law

Rehabillitaion: the committers should come to their senses, recover.

Protection of society: Long prison sentence protect society against repeat offending.

Criminal Law for minors: children under the age of 12 cannot be prosecuted, but may come in touch with Child Care and Prosecution Board. Children between 12 and 18 fall under juvenile criminal law. Minor offences are settled through Halt Bureaus, you get community service and do not have to appear in court.

Young people who commit severe crimes have to appeal before youth/ juvenile court, which may impose Juvenile detention. The court can impose committal to a treatment centre for young offenders with serious personality disorders. The major difference between adult criminal law and juvenile criminal law is that the last focuses mainly on rehabilitation.

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Causes criminality:
Social causes:

economic crisis/ poverty

diminishing of social control

availability and use of alcohol and other drugs.

Personal causes:
Criminal characteristics
Misfortune
Upbringing (special circumstances family)
Alcohol/drug addiction

Policies for dealing with criminality:
Preventive measures:
More conductors (for city transport)
City guards
more police on street
Adaption public environment.

Repressive measures:
Less community service and more prison sentences
Longer prison sentence
extending police force (on streets but also at investigations department.)

Theories on causes of criminality:
Socio Biological theory: neurological and hormonal processes. (less empathy, less fear, less pain.)
Bonding theory: social bonds (family and friends) prevent that people become criminality
Learned behaviour theory: bad behaviour can be learned from your parents or bad friends. (mostly occurs in low social classes and ghetto's)
Personality theory: criminal activity can be caused by experiences in early childhood.

Anomie theory: Some people start criminal activity if they can't reach their goals. E.g. material wealth, if they can't get them in a fair way, they start stealing them.